A mixed bag

First of all, back to trying to get the car running.

The camshaft is aligned correctly with the crankshaft - that's a good thing.

The rotor arm is pointing at number 1 in the distributor cap when at TDC - again a good thing.

Oh,. what's this big crack in the dizzy cap? So, we replace the dizzy cap with a new one and then wonder why it won't run when we initially put the plug leads on wrong.

Put that right tho and it still won't run.

So, next we check the static timing and find we can't get enough adjustment on the dizzy to put it right. oh, right - time to pack away for a re-think.

Maybe we should pull the dizzy out and relocate it.

On the co-driver/service crew front tho there's progress. The list of possible co-drivers is being refined, one off it, another one contacted to see if he would like to restart after a layoff and anothre one contacted from the classicrallychat forum.

Regarding service crews - Tim Bancroft, Andy Pearce, Jon Ranwell and Neil Dowie have all offered help of some kind or another. AP has even promised an estate car as service barge

Meanwhile, I have just sold a pair of DCOes and the sports exhaust manifold for an 8 valve engine on e-bay which has raised alot of the funds needed for the roll cage. Good luck Simon with the racing by the way - I hope the DCOEs play a full part.

So what next?

Well, having realised the first rally is less than 18 months away the next thought process is to review where I stand now.

Car - not running! So that needs sorting. Then it needs a roll cage, a fire extinguisher system, harnesses, the cut out switch wiring up and various official bits of paperwork.

In addition a helmet and flameproof suit for both driver and co-driver.

Going back to the engine, or tuning there of. I have been thinking about building a relatively high spec engine and fitting twin Webers or Dellortos.

Well, actually I reckon a standard running engine will be fine. If the one that's in can do this, fine but if not then rather than fanny about maybe I'll just buy a built engine form S&S.

Regarding carburration - well twin Webers , properly bought, installed and set up could easily cost £600 to gain how much BHP over slightly tuned standard 1 3/4" SUs? Not many I reckon, maybe 10BHP especially if the engine remains pretty standard.

I haven't got a huge budget so that £600 could be spent on buying a full set of Avon or Dunlop competition tyres - now in my view they will get me a bigger performance increase than the carbs.

Regarding the crew. Well at the moment I am still not legally allowed to drive until August due to medical reasons but that's hopefully only a question of time.

I do need to sort out a co-driver though and will be applying my thoughts to this important person over the next few days; like Santa, I'll be making a list and checking it twice!

Oh, and a service crew would be good too - more thought needed on that.

Declaration update

In my "declaration of intent" I set the goal of competing in the Manx Historic rally in 2010.

Well that is getting much closer now so I am going to work through what needs to be done here on my blog.

Working back from the "goal".

I have to have the TR7 at the start line mid July 2010 which is only just over 2 1/2 years away.

Now, working back from this I and my co-driver (note to self, co-driver needs to be sorted out yet!) need to have "National A" competition licences to enter.

How do you get them? Well you apply to the MSA but first you have to get signatures on your "national B" licence from four lower level events.

That leads on to the next bit in the timescale then. If we need four signatures then we need to have entered and completed four rallies before July 2010. They also need to be tarmac rallies as that's all I am setting the car up for.

Hmm - what should they be? Well, it seems to me that doing the tarmac rounds of the HRCR Northern rally championship should cover it.

So that looks like The John Overend memorial rally near York in mid May 2009, the Torque Bac stages at Swinderby airfield in June 2009, the Thor Hammer Stages in mid September 2009 and then the Cheviot/keith Knox stages at Otterburn in October 2009.

Crikey, the first one is less than 18 months away!